Zuku gets even cheaper fibre broadband Internet.
Let me start by saying that I really have nothing personal against Zuku except the fact that they need to figure out how to cope with the overwhelming demand that they have for their low-cost uncapped and unlimited broadband WIMAX Internet service.
Its been a no-brainer for over a year that Zuku has the least expensive residential and small office home office (SOHO) broadband WIMAX service in Kenya. This has been the case even as the likes of Safaricom and AccessKenya have also been in the fray offering broadband services, which have always been pricier.
The irony of Zuku is that having followed a lot of comments on this blog, it seems that demand massively outstrips their ability to effectively and efficiently offer their services. Mind you, I am not talking about the actual quality of their bandwidth but rather their sales and customer service capabilities. They are clearly unable to cope and this makes them unresponsive to existing and prospective customers – leading to frustration more often than not, if not outright service cancellations.
Therefore, owing to a hint from someone close to Zuku, I found out today (via their web site) that they are rolling out their fibre-based broadband Internet services in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa, Kilimani and Lavington suburbs. What may come as a surprise to you is that Zuku broadband on fibre in these areas is not only faster, but also even cheaper than what they currently have on WIMAX. To give you an idea of what I mean, these are current prices Zuku has for their WIMAX broadband:
- 256 kbps – Kes. 1,499.00 per month.
- 512 kbps – Kes. 2,499.00 per month.
- 1 mbps – Kes. 4,999.00 per month.
Set-up and installation for all of the above packages is a one-off payment of Kes. 2,999.00 and a monthly equipment rental fee of Kes. 500.00 per month. All things considered, this sounds like a good deal for uncapped and unlimited restidential and/or SOHO Internet access in Kenya.
Now, this will take probably take your breath away (and make you giddy) but here are the new Zuku fibre-based broadband residential and SOHO packages:
- 1 Mbps – Kes. 999.00 per month.
- 4 Mbps – Kes. 1,999.00 per month.
- 8 Mbps – Kes. 3,499.00 per month.
In each of these packages, there is a one-off installation and set-up fee of Kes. 2,999.00 (nothing at this juncture is mentioned on the Zuku web site about any monthly equipment rental fees). To boot, Zuku is also offering free phone calls within the Zuku network on fibre should you opt to take one of their cable TV and Internet bundles.
Only time will tell how Zuku fares on fibre broadband compared to WIMAX but I am more than keen to give it a shot at these prices for no less than the 8 Mbps package – customer service non-withstanding! For more information not covered in this post go to www.zuku.co.ke.
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48 Comments
The 8MBps rocks. We did a test with youtube and there is very little caching. Guys here even watch european news live..The only concern is their responsiveness in case of technical glitches. Our connection went down a day ago because of some nearby roadworks and still waiting to be reconnected.
it sounds you are really excited but youtube cannot tell you the actual speed offered .You need to inquire from them the guranteed speed at peak and off-peak hours.
yuo should also go to speedtest.net to check for the actual speed of your downlink .
Great news. Not a lot of info on their TV offering from their website. Content info I mean (sports/news etc channel details).
Now this will be a game-changer for real. And DSTV has also lowered their costs from 15K to 5K for installation.
We are indeed living in interesting times.
Thanks for the info.
.-= mmnjug´s last blog ..mmnjug- RT @TechCrunch- Presenting The Beatles On iTunes http-tcrnch-cJO9SN by @erickschonfeld =-.
Dang, at those prices I wish they served my area… I can hope coz I wud give them a shot even if the CS sucks… Well, for 1 month anyway!
I have never quite gotten what Zuku is all about.
Totally agree with you that the actual quality of Zuku bandwidth is unbelievably good! But I’m disappointed that most of the juicy products like cable TV and fibre broadband are confined to Nairobi while the rest of us (I live in Nyeri) have only the snappy internet connection to write home about.
And yeah, those fibre connectivity packages still have my head reeling. Whaaaaaaat?!!
.-= Daniel Muimi´s last blog ..Making Nice but Short Presentations =-.
WTH? aki those guyz who live in the aforementioned places are very lucky.
Please make your way to Karen!
when the deal is too good think twice, We signed up for zuku about a month ago and paid upfront for it.A month later,………….nothing!, you try calling them you get bounced from one person to the other. It was really frustrating, so they finally send someone after about three weeks of calling and I think to myself, finally,……..shock on me,!!!they were coming to lay the cables with no lockbox…(wat the hell is a lockbox anyway?)so they up and leave ,with the cables as well.!!So ofcourse more calling,and finally i give up and get Access Kenya to come connect us,they came within 24hours and we hadn’t even paid!!Ironically enough,zuku guys come over on the same day,you’d think they are finally coming to connect us,right?WRONG,they were coming to survey!!!!Right now am still making calls to try get a re-fund.Wish me luck!!!
Why do i get the feeling that safaricom’s new promotional double data bundles are a pre-emptive strike against a soon to be launched competitor package?
Thanks for the hint – I hope they can soon extend the fiber-based broadband to Ngumo and other neighborhoods. The speeds and prices are sounding crazy. Then we shall start defining bliss …
.-= gmeltdown´s last blog ..Tribulations of the M-PESA Agent =-.
Got the 8meg and its great! Getting real 8Mb so far(upgraded to iOS 4.2 in 10 minutes <– 700MB download, 900KB/s average rate) and was setup in 48hrs.
Good to see you stayed on Zuku Moses. I thought that Andrea had derailed you on some Facebook conversation some time back.
Office and home, and for people who were coming in complaining about low quality connections in Kenya, we’ve really enjoyed Zuku. Formula 1? NBA Finals? Copa America? Al Jazeera news? Even BBC iPlayer on proxy. You get it live and the savings, no DSTV, no Safaricom modems, are immense.
One major problem, they need to have power backup systems at their sites. Far too many blackouts coming up with the KPLC rationing programme for us to suffer these disruptions.
hate these guys! dudes installed on Monday and the next day the thing was off.!!! wimax is bad why lie, ati average download speed of 12KBs on a 1Mbps link. this is nonsense. my bro lives in kile and some of my homies live those sides and i’ve seen the crazy tachyon speeds those guys are pushing on that 8mb link. can you imagine how many bloody portable drives you could fill up??? i live in naks and if not even westi guys have fiber yet, i can forget about ever surfing the web the way the almighty god intended. i’d rather keep my 5.5 gees man and go drink it some place…i can forget about zuku until fiber arrives in this town. meh…in retrospect, south Korean residents pay 50$ US (about 6K) for 200Mbps unlimited per month. that’s another level of speed manze
i believe this is best that ever happened to Kenya since sliced bread… just wondering when all this is going to reach mombasa, given the fact that the cables first landed here… are this firms bias or what?
finally after 3 wks of waiting got the tv and internet were out of stock for the HD reciver so the picture is not as impressive the internet speeds are timam 900kbps downloaded 500mbs in 12 min not bad
I always get the feeling that Zuku is a company with good ideas but no ambition. First, they had this TV offer that was only limited to certain neighbourhoods for a very long time. Not they have a good internet offer but is also limited to certain neighbourhoods, god knows for how long that will be. I think they need credible competitors (safaricom on its part, is a money grabbing organization but can be a good competitor ). If they really want to be the leading internet provider in Kenya, they need to start dreaming big. I am stuck with safaricom Wimax, and although the speeds are decent, I feel like I am being fleeced.
Is this fibre available in town??? Pls rply
Ahhhhh!!!!! 2 months later – and still waiting for ZUKU to connect our office on Kindaruma road – 30m from the cable and less than 200m from ZUKU offices! Their CS sucks, big time! Very frustrating…
What us from the far eastern end of nairobi? Getting cheap and decent internet in Places like Ruai is a tall order. No wimax no fibre optic
Do they have have plans of extending their fibre cables to Nairobi South in particular South C area?
Yesterday on their Zuku Cinema Channel, a price increase of 500/- on all WiMax packages was advertised as being implemented from April 1st 2011.
Couple that with equipment fees for new users – that’s an extra 1000/- a month regardless of wiMax package.
These guys Zuku need to stop being elitists and roll out fiber in other parts of Nairobi (esp South C) soon. This whole kile, kili and lavi bs is well.. bs!
Does anyone answer anyone or anything here. This blog seems to be so impersonal.
Well. I let lots if feedback through so surprised you say nothing gets answered. What was your question?
zuku is best thing that ever happened to me! Turbo 8 is amazing! I can watch ANYTHING and it doesnt even need to buffer! I even surf on my ps3! Even with multiple computers connected, its still fast! They’ve got channels like Nickelodeon, Fox FX, Nat Geo, BET, and many more!
@zukuguy I am quite enjoying their service these days too 🙂
I have zuku fibre in Lang’ata. Turbo 1,1mbps. Its either down or a quarter of the speed most of the time. It’s so frustrating.
please let me know if the services are available in town
to be used in the office
I would like to use your services in town, kindly let me know if you have the same in town. Thanks
I will be trying them out soon, I currently have Wimax with Access kenya and they suck big-time, first you do not get what they advertise or sell, and if you tell their engineers and sales people, the answer you get is why not upgrade. Why should I and they cannot even give what they advertise It has prompted me to move to a zuku service area and internet speed and connection is a must since I work from home fulltime. I will post my thoughts of the service and progress within the next week. One more thing Access Kenya has some of the most incompetent engineers I have ever come across.
i think you have your facts wrong,no ISP will ever give the published speeds,fact.i’m currently using accessK.it’s true its sucks,but so do all,word of mouth from various users,on different service providers.my advice stick to access till your contract expires
What about the rest of us. I want to play black ops online but we don’t have Zuku in our place. Does anyone know any other alternative or should i just start petitioning Zuku to come to our place
I need it badly, Need the connection
Mazey zuku kuweni seras.yu need tu go back to the drawing board. Ronga should have set the pace.thnk big.
slowest T8 service if you download torrents (movies, music, books, apps etc) i discovered that ZUKU throttles torrent downloads to under 10kb speeds, we even did a comparison test infront of their techs between safcoms unlimited “bambanet” which got me download speeds of 100kbs, and they admitted its done by the office……if i knew that there were restrictions on this service i would have stuck to my unlimited safaricom….
just as a followup read this (information is power)
https://moseskemibaro.com/2010/11/16/zuku-gets-even-cheaper-fibre-broadband-internet/#comment-17887
Sorry wrong link (information is power)
http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/2011-March/011793.html
who is enjoying zuku speeds of 8mbps?I am hoping to engage zuku for my home internet.Have they improved on their services yet?if not why not bash them out of business quit a good idea!!!
I guess Zuku doesn’t change their service’s yet same as usual.Well let’s give Zuku a chance to improve their service maybe they are experiencing a major problem and they are trying to find ways for that.I really wonder aren’t they have a competent staff to handle a situation like this? I mean Lack of quality service and all that stuff.If they don’t have they should find someone else to gain peoples sympathy.
I have been using zuku internet for a while now but since last December my connection has been on and off every day, when calling customer care all they can say and do is telling you to reset your modem or send u a technician which comes when he pleases after few days,
now when finally the technician appears he tells you that u have a low signal and that’s the reason of my problems, but does he fixes it? no
all he does resets the modem which I did already several times before him and he goes reporting that the problem was fixed.
Now what I wonder is why do i have to pay for a service which i don’t have?
so i called customer care once again to ask to be refund my money and they told me that it was not their policy to refund the money back because the problems i was having it was not under their side
so just Like Mary go round now i am having problems because i am doing something wrong
so i decided to call customer care to get disconnected from them and cancel the account, now what they tell me is to write an email requesting to cancel the accounts,so i asked, how would i write and send an email if i don’t have internet?
anyway my account number is 67137
Zuku i have to add that their internet service is not bad, that only applies when you have the service offcourse
i would like to know how do Zuku recruit their technicians and customer care staff
Zuku are going to lose their customer before they even notice it
I live in langata and I have been achieving crazy speeds while dowloading torrent files! Last night the top speed was 0.964 mbps
Perhaps a south korean may shrug off zukus speed but I might say I have in the past dated some big brands and most turned out to be frogs, especially the green and the bigest in the pond.
Zuku gives value for money (sofar) and the zuku movie channels are unlike DoomSTV I hope they increase the subscription base that WILL mitigate the entry and recurrent costs. Thus be patient guys I think zukus strategy is to win the hearts of many in the long term ofcourse scrifices have to be made and afew broken hearts
i pay for the 8mps, i am currently getting a maximum of 24kbps, i HAVE COMPLAINED so many time i have no words…..zuku is not a good brand but opportunity seekers, its just a matter of time before someone offers kenyans a better deal..i hear safcom are upto something. Cant wait,for now its zuku but i can assure they dug their grave a long time ago…just like nikia:::
i need internet in my residencial in komarocks eastlands.
call 0729774606
Having used the 1Mbps “Jistart package” (which is actually 128kbs) at Ksh 999 per month for the past 2 months in Tena,it’s rather apparent that Zuku actually offer the best deal in the market at the price.I used to pay the same amount for Safaricom’s 1.5GB bundle.The customer care does answer generally after less than 3 minutes should one need to get in touch with them.Furthermore,keep in mind that you may not have internet for a combined total of 4 days(this is my best guesstimate) due to technical issues and other network issues which do crop up often.As for torrents,I do not know about the other packages but for the 1Mbps package,just leave it overnight.The package above does not include phone or TV and has a one off-Ksh 1000 installation fee(equipment returns to Zuku when one ceases using their services).All in all I’d give them a seven out of 10.